The newly-elected councillor said he has spoken to the owner of the house in the original video and has apologised.

Coun Smith said he has not seen the second video that was posted to social media but said it “must have been” the second house he took the leaflet from.

He said: “I apologised for any offence I have caused. Looking at it now I should not have taken it out. I apologise profusely.

The two incidents have been reported to St Helens Council’s monitoring officer, Jan Bakewell.

Merseyside Police and the Electoral Commission have also been informed.

A spokesman for Merseyside Police initially said that after reviewing the footage, it did not appear that any criminal offences have taken place, so had passed the matter on to the council.
It has since been confirmed that a police investigation is now taking place.

St Helens Council declined to comment.

Labour’s Jeanie Bell said Coun Smith and the Lib Dems have “disgraced themselves”, calling the campaign tactics “unfair and undemocratic”.

“Politics can be tit for tat,” Coun Bell said.

“We get that. And although the public get fed up with it, that’s how it is.

“However, actively going up peoples’ driveways to steal letters out of someone’s letterbox is unfair and undemocratic.

“The Lib Dems and David Smith have disgraced themselves here.

“We don’t know how many leaflets they’ve stolen and who hasn’t had the information now. It’s terrible.”

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